The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 29, 2005
Filed:
Nov. 13, 2000
Felix Burton, San Mateo, CA (US);
Sandeep Dutta, Foster City, CA (US);
Felix Burton, San Mateo, CA (US);
Sandeep Dutta, Foster City, CA (US);
Wind River Systems, Inc., Alameda, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for memory reclamation is disclosed that includes marking a memory object when an attempt to alter a reference to the memory object is detected by a software write barrier. Marking be by using representations ('black,' 'white', “gray”) stored as part of a garbage collection information data structure associated with each memory object. Initially, all allocated memory objects are marked white. Objects are then processed such that objects referenced by pointers are marked gray. Each object marked gray is then processed to determine objects referenced by pointers in it, and such objects are marked gray. When all objects referenced by pointers in the selected gray objected have been processed, the selected gray object is marked black. When all processing has been completed, objects still marked white may be reclaimed. Also described is a garbage collector which runs as a task concurrently with other tasks. A priority of the garbage collector may be increased to prevent interruption during certain parts of the garbage collection procedure.